Easter Eggs, Breadcrumbs & Golden Nuggets

Jennifer Zurko

Have you ever heard the term “Easter eggs”—not in the literal sense, but when it comes to movies? 

Easter eggs are the little hidden messages, inside jokes and secret details that filmmakers intentionally put in their movies for those observant watchers to discover. George Lucas sprinkled a few “Star Wars” and other film references into the “Indiana Jones” movies he produced. The creators of “The Simpsons” have been doing this for decades. And if you’ve watched a Pixar movie, you see a ton of them.

During a recent lounge-y Sunday, my daughter and I watched “Monsters, Inc.” again. It’s one of our favorite Pixar movies. And I swear, even after watching it for the 100th time, I catch new Easter eggs. Did I notice that Boo had a Jessie doll from “Toy Story” in her room before ...? 

How often do we put Easter eggs throughout GrowerTalks and Green Profit? I suppose if we had an infinite amount of time and cleverness, we could really put some thought into tucking in a few bits and morsels here and there. But, then again, do you have an infinite amount of time to look for Easter eggs in this magazine? (We already know you have an infinite amount of cleverness.)   

I mean, we do refer to past articles we’ve written and news that we’ve covered—this is a trade publication, after all. We cover a lot of the same ground every year, peppered with some new stuff and different topics. Themes, yes. Easter eggs, not so much. 

What we have is more along the lines of breadcrumbs than Easter eggs. We sprinkle them from beginning to end in order to help you find your way down the path. But don’t worry—there’s no witch in a house made of candy waiting at the end to put you in an oven. What we always strive for is that you get some useful information in an enjoyable, casual package. 

This month’s breadcrumbs lead you down the perennials and woodies path, starting with the second part of our coverage of the California Spring Trials that includes all of the new perennial introductions. 

Our resident shrub and tree expert, Dr. Jeb Fields, delves into breeding trends in woody ornamentals and offers a few highlights of what’s new for 2026. We also have info on prickly pear (surprise!—it IS a perennial cactus), and managing scales on shrubs and trees. 
 
But what’s REALLY exciting this month is something brand new for us: We have a special section dedicated to perennials, specifically production on overwintering and bulking. This is the first time we’ve reserved a chunk of real estate called out separately from the rest of the magazine because we wanted to gauge interest in creating something just for perennials. Our intel has been telling us that consumers are wanting them and, breeders, distributors and retailers are putting more of an emphasis on them, so we wanted to deliver something on this category that would be helpful and solutions-based for those who grow perennials. The goal is to have it be its own individual supplement, which will be sometime in 2026 (we’re not exactly sure when yet, so stay tuned for that). 

I hope the breadcrumbs we’ve left you lead to some golden nuggets—something valuable, insightful or significant, offering a key takeaway, a piece of wisdom or something memorable. We’re here to make sure that you don’t have to put the effort into mining for those golden nuggets or searching for those Easter eggs—our job is to make sure the breadcrumbs are easy to follow and that you get what you need at the end. I’m sure Hansel and Gretel would have much preferred that kind of outcome to what they ended up finding in that sweets-covered house. GT